Do you have an autopilot

[SCCutler]

The Twinkie has a Century 2000 with altitude hold. It holds altitude within 10 feet, heading within a couple of degrees and is absolutely rock solid in approach mode. In fact the first time I flew a coupled approach I thought something was wrong because the needles were so solidly centered.

An good autopilot is one of the most sophisticated and powerful pieces of equipment in an airplane, and unfortunately it's proper use is usually treated as an afterthought. If you fight it, it can literally kill you by trimming the airplane against your control inputs. The keys are to understand exactly how your unit operates, to pre-flight it correctly, and if it is not working to get it fixed.

I like the Century, it's attitude based system is more solid in bumps than the rate based STec, but if I was putting a unit in an airplane with one vacuum system I'd buy an STec to back me up in case of vacuum loss.

Jay

Agreed in all respects. I like the rate-based S-Tec as a backup to the vacuum gyro instruments.

Have seen, in the course of my shopping, more than a few aircraft with both a full-featured autopilot (2-axis, attitude-based, like a Century IIIo r 2000), and a rate-based wing-leveler (Century 1 or S-Tec 20 / 40).

Belt and suspenders? Yes, thank you.

 

[gismo]

Nah, I understand the limitations, Greg, but how are you supposed to keep the plane coordinated in IMC when it decides to turn?

Turn the yaw damper on?

You'd practically have to fixate on the TC to make sure that the ball was centered the entire time.

If you don't have a yaw damper just keep one hand on the wheel while george flys and make rudder inputs proportional to the wheel movement.

I think that a wing leveler would be a much better choice than a 1 axis autopilot.

Not sure what you mean by that as a wing leveler is a single axis autopilot with no coupling capability.

I am not saying that those of you that use Autopilots are insane or doing something wrong, I'm just saying that autopilots are not for me. I gave in, and decided to try one to see if I was missing something. I wasn't.

A lot depends on the airplane and the type of flying you do.

And I can certainly say that I would not count on a 1 axis autopilot in IMC.

For airplanes that are very stable in pitch (like a 182) they can work pretty well.